Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy:


In January 2014, it was reported by The New York Times and other mainstream media outlets that America’s National Security Agency (NSA) uses secret technology to remotely input and alter data on computers worldwide – even when targeted PC’s or laptops are not connected to the Internet. This suppressed technology, which uses radio frequencies to spy on computers, only came to the public’s attention due to leaked NSA documents from former agency contractor-turned whistleblower Edward Snowden.

This begs the question: Is it a regular occurrence for governments, intelligence agencies and the military to withhold scientific breakthroughs from the public?

If so, how many other suppressed inventions exist in the world’s ironclad vaults of power?

And what if most of the technologies readers and cinemagoers are presented with in bestselling books and blockbuster movies are not science fiction, but science fact? What if they currently exist on the planet, but are suppressed from the masses?

Imagine for a moment a reality where all the technologies that futurists have predicted have already been invented and are currently being used by a privileged few.

There have been numerous reports of scientific inventions that never saw the light of day even though they were perfected and ready to go on the market. Rumors of these radical inventions date back to the post-Industrial Revolution period in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and have persisted right up to and including the present day.

Were a documentary film ever to be produced based on the conspiratorial history of suppressed technologies, the individuals featured would include everyone from inventors who either suddenly died, went missing or faded into obscurity, to tech investors who were mysteriously thwarted to scientists who lost their patents without receiving any valid explanation.


"The orphans understood the device they wore was an example of the almost infinite number of scientific breakthroughs made by the military and secret organizations – breakthroughs the public were never privy to." –The Orphan Factory

I think it is clear from the aerospace side alone that the government keeps certain advances secret when it involves, what they believe to be, national security interests.

So that the NSA had tech that could spy on computers does not surprise me.

What I take more with a grain of salt is when there are claims that advances are being withheld that could benefit humanity that have no reasonable security interest. The whole "the government has a cure for..." stream of thinking, be it cancer, AIDS, whatever.

I do see some credence, but not always, the tech that has been suppressed where business interests are concerned. Some of these are credible, some less so.

William Gibson says that the future is here, it's just unequally distributed. Some of that future stuff has to be in the hands of military organizations. It only makes sense to hang onto things that give you a competitive advantage. When everyone has them, it can trickle down to the civilians.

That said, I'm not ready to believe our military has time machines or teleporters to Mars. They may have some pretty sweet avionics and things like that.

Jim wrote: "It only makes sense to hang onto things that give you a competitive advantage. When everyone has them, it can trickle down to the civilians.
..."

Yep, I think you've hit nail on the head with that statement, Jim!

2011 Targeting U.S. Technologies: A Trend Analysis of Reporting from Defense Industry - DSS Protection of National Security Classified Information from Espionage, Sabotage, and Terrorism